News / Yemen / News

Yemeni snipers kill 14 Saudi mercenaries in retaliatory attacks

Wednesday, 14 March 2018 5:16 PM [ Last Update: Saturday, 17 March 2018 11:23 AM ]

This file photo shows a Yemeni Houthi Ansarullah fighter dressed in camouflage, and aiming at a position of Saudi troops in southwestern Saudi Arabia. (Photo by the media bureau of Yemen’s Joint Operations Command)

Yemeni army soldiers, supported by fighters from allied Popular Committees, have shot dead more than a dozen pro-Saudi militiamen loyal to resigned Yemeni president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi in the kingdom’s southwestern border region of Asir.

Yemeni troops and their allies fatally shot 14 Saudi soldiers in the the al-Alab border crossing of the region on Wednesday, Arabic-language al-Masirah television network reported.

Earlier in the day, Saudi military aircraft carried out a dozen airstrikes against Sana'a International Airport, causing extensive damage to the already defunct site.

The developments came a day after Yemeni soldiers and Popular Committees fighters targeted three Saudi troopers in al-Haskoul and Tabbe al-Nassour bases of Saudi Arabia’s Jizan region, located 967 kilometers southwest of the capital Riyadh.

The Yemeni forces shot and killed four Saudi-sponsored militiamen near al-Alab border crossing as well.

Saudi Arabia has been incessantly pounding Yemen since March 2015 in an attempt to crush the popular Houthi Ansarullah movement and reinstate former president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, who is a staunch ally of the Riyadh regime.

A Yemeni man inspects the damage in the aftermath of a Saudi airstrike in the Yemeni capital Sana’a on March 8, 2018. (Photo by AFP)

At least 13,600 people have been killed since the onset of Saudi Arabia’s military campaign against Yemen. Much of the Arabian Peninsula country's infrastructure, including hospitals, schools and factories, has been reduced to rubble due to the war.

The United Nations says a record 22.2 million people are in need of food aid, including 8.4 million threatened by severe hunger.

A high-ranking UN aid official recently warned against the “catastrophic” living conditions in Yemen, stating that there is a growing risk of famine and cholera there.

A Yemeni child receives a diphtheria vaccine at a health center in the capital Sana’a on March 14, 2018. (Photo by AFP)

“After three years of conflict, conditions in Yemen are catastrophic,” John Ging, UN director of aid operations, told the UN Security Council on February 27.

He added, “People's lives have continued unraveling. Conflict has escalated since November driving an estimated 100,000 people from their homes.”

Ging further noted that cholera has infected 1.1 million people in Yemen since last April, and a new outbreak of diphtheria has occurred in the war-ravaged Arab country since 1982.

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk